oh, jesus: the return (hee)

Because it's easter. Get it?

OK, weirdly, and I so do not understand this - way more is open and going today than it was on Friday. bars, stores, restaurants are all open. I mean, some are closed, but it seems mostly normally Sunday closure, as opposed to Easter Sunday closure. Isn't that weird? I thought Easter Sunday was a bigger deal than Good Friday; when I was at parochial school, we only still had a half day on Good Friday.

Anyway, so yesterday was still sort of crummy out, but not nearly as cold, but I went to The Rocks, out by the Harbour, which is the oldest part of Sydney. It's got quaint old buildings and a weekend market that caters to rich tourists, but still has nice stuff. I went to Chinatown for dinner, too, which was awesome. I can't wait for Asia and all the food I shall eat there.

Today was gorgeous, though - perfect and warm and sunny. I got up and went straight for Circular Quay to catch a ferry - I knew with this kind of weather on an Easter Sunday, the zoo was gonna be packed. I was right, but I managed to miss most of it.

I don't go to a lot of zoos in life, and I think that's why I still like them. Taronga Zoo is also pretty exceptional - its a quick ferry ride across the Harbour, set right next to the water. The elephants have a waterfront view of the city from their area; how is that for prime real estate? They also have everything at this zoo, and people are allowed to get fairly close, so I actually saw things in most areas, not just some lump in the distance that is presumably a monkey.

I learned many things today:
Platypus are weird looking, and hysterical, and swim like they REALLY have SOME PLACE to BE.
Koala absolutely know how cute they are and like to be as photogenic as possible. Hams.

Echidnas are hysterical, and waddle when they walk, and I love them.
Red pandas are so adorable that this one looked almost fake. He was also so playful and perfect-looking, I am shocked that Disney has not made one the star of his very own heartwarming movie yet.

I got to see kangaroos and wallabys; a sleeping wombat and a waking up and drowsy Tasmanian devil; possums and otters and meerkats and gorillas and seals and giraffes; lions, tigers, snow leopards, elephants, zebras, ostriches...there were seriously lots of animals.

And the weird thing is, because it is a "natural" zoo, most of the animals were separated by some water or some space, and that's it. For some of them, though, it wasn't even that - the red kangaroos were just there, and we walked on a path through them. There was nothing to stop, say, a roo rampage, but I suppose that's not very common. There were also iguana and lizard and birds and spiders and all sorts of fauna wandering about the zoo, not as a part of an exhibit - perhaps there with the family for Easter?

There were also all these thingsI had never heard of - like the binturong, which is a relative of the mongoose. There was this whole family of them, and they looked like completely hairy possums almost. They were putting on a show - the parents climbing up high and eating, and the kids trying to get up there. One was not a good climber, and would sort of cry out for help when he couldn't get the next branch, and the other got up to the parents and then fell, catching himself with the tail and trying to pull himself up on the weakest branch around. It was awesome.

Since I got there early, I managed to get through most of the zoo before it got too late and too crowded, but right about 1 or 1:30, I noticed the shift. The kids (and it was ALL families there today) started crying more, the parents were doing more scolding and yelling, there was more general crabbiness. Fortunately, I had covered most everything by about 2, so when I started feeling like throwing a temper tantrum myself from being to TIRED and to HOT and WAH, I thought it best to go home.

I'm glad the weather turned - the zoo would have been good without it, but it made for an extra nice day. I hope it sticks, too - that gives me great hope for the weather in the Blue Mountains this week.